Non-peptidic GAPDH aggregation inhibitor

ABSTRACT

[Problem] Provided is a non-peptide compound which can be used as a GAPDH aggregation inhibitor. [Solution] Provided is a GAPDH aggregation inhibitor including as an active ingredient a compound represented by the chemical formula 1 wherein R 1 , R 2 , and R 3  are each independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, or an aliphatic hydrocarbon group having a carbon number of from 1 to 10, a polysulfurized derivative thereof, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. The present compound has a GAPDH aggregation inhibitory activity to suppress intracerebral aggregation of various proteins involved in cerebral neurodegenerative diseases, thereby contributing to improvement in various brain neurological diseases associated with aggregation of these proteins such as Alzheimer&#39;s disease, Parkinson&#39;s disease, and cerebral infarction, and prevention of advanced seriousness of these diseases.

TECHNICAL FILED

The present invention relates to a non-peptide aggregation inhibitor ofGAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase).

The sequence listing submitted in a computer readable form under thename of “Sequence Listing02232023.txt” is hereby incorporated byreference into the present application. The electronic copy of thesequence listing in the computer readable form, the file size of whichis 361 bytes, was created on Feb. 23, 2023.

BACKGROUND ART

Alzheimer's disease, which causes cognitive disorder as a major symptom,requires immediate attention to take countermeasures. The correctionbetween amyloidosis such as Alzheimer's disease and aggregation of GAPDHsuggests that inhibition of GAPDH aggregation may prevent aggregation ordeposition of amyloid β. In view of such circumstances, the presentinventors have found that a peptide consisting of 10 to 20 amino acidresidues with a specific amino acid sequence can inhibit aggregation ofGAPDH. This finding has been filed as a patent application (PatentDocument 1).

However, peptides are decomposed in the gastrointestinal tract, andrapidly metabolized in the body. Further, peptides are generallyaccepted to have poor cerebral internalization even via intravenousadministration. Moreover, peptides suffer from difficult synthesis andpurification. For these reasons, a peptide-like but non-peptide compound(a peptide mimic) is desired.

CITATION LIST Patent Document

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-241402

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

The present invention is made in view of the circumstances described inbackground art. After conducting extensive studies based on the peptidedisclosed in Patent Document 1, the present inventors now find that apeptide consisting of even fewer amino acid residues can suppressaggregation of GAPDH. Further the present inventors now find a compoundcapable of selectively inhibiting aggregation of GAPDH after conductingmodeling of various compounds starting from the above peptide. That is,an object of the present invention is to provide a novel non-peptidecompound which can be used as a GAPDH aggregation inhibitor.

Solution to Problem

A compound according to the present invention is represented by thefollowing chemical formula 1 (Formula 1) or a polysulfurized derivativethereof, and may be used as a GAPDH aggregation inhibitor. In theformula, R₁, R₂, and R₃ are each independently a hydrogen atom, ahalogen atom, or an aliphatic hydrocarbon group having a carbon numberof from 1 to 10. Further, the compound according to the presentinvention may be a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

The present invention can provide a novel GAPDH aggregation inhibitor asa non-peptide compound.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A to 1C show a synthesis pathway of a compound TN-101.

FIG. 2 shows protective effects of a GAI-17 peptide on amyloid β40induced PC12 cell death. In the figure, “**” means that there was asignificant difference (1% significance level) against a control, and“##” and “††” mean that there was a significant difference (1%significance level) between subject groups.

FIG. 3 shows the relationship between GAPDH aggregation and cerebralinfarction in a stroke model. (a) shows an image from Western blottingindicating formation of intracerebral GAPDH aggregates, and (b) showsthe relationship between formation of intracerebral GAPDH aggregates andcerebral infarction volume.

FIG. 4 shows cerebroprotective effects of the GAI-17 peptide. (a) showsthe change in cerebral infarction volume, and (b) shows the improvementin neurological symptoms.

FIG. 5 shows a pharmacophore model with the compound TN-101 bound toGAPDH.

FIG. 6 shows results from a first screening for the compound TN-101.

FIG. 7 shows results from a second screening for the compound TN-101.

FIG. 8 is a graph illustrating results from measuring a GAPDHaggregation inhibitory activity (IC₅₀) of the compound TN-101. In thefigure, “**” means that there was a significant difference (1%significance level) against the GAI-17 peptide.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The compound according to the present invention is a compoundrepresented by the following chemical formula 1 (Formula 1) or apolysulfurized derivative thereof. In the formula, R₁, R₂, and R₃ areeach independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, or an aliphatichydrocarbon group having a carbon number of from 1 to 10. The halogenatom may be a fluorine atom, a chlorine atom, a bromine atom, or aniodine atom. The aliphatic hydrocarbon group may be a saturated orunsaturated hydrocarbon group, or may be a linear or branchedhydrocarbon group. The aliphatic hydrocarbon group may be, for example,a methyl group, an ethyl group, an n-propyl group, an isopropyl group,an n-butyl group, an isobutyl group, a sec-butyl group, or a tert-butylgroup. In the present invention, the polysulfurized derivative refers toa compound as represented by the chemical formula 2 (Formula 2 wherein nis an integer of 1 or more) or the chemical formula 5 (Formula 5 whereinn is an integer of 1 or more) where one or more sulfur atoms(polysulfur) are further added to the sulfur atom on the compoundrepresented by the chemical formula 1 and a derivative as represented bythe chemical formula 3 (Formula 3 wherein n is an integer of 1 or more)or the chemical formula 6 (Formula 6 wherein n is an integer of 1 ormore) where two molecules of the compound represented by the chemicalformula 1 are attached together through one or more sulfur atoms(polysulfur). Further, the compound according to the present inventionmay be in a form of a pharmaceutically acceptable salt. The above saltmay be, for example, a hydrochloride, a sulfate, a maleate, an oleate,or a fumarate. It is noted that a compound represented by the chemicalformula 5 or 6 corresponds to a compound in which R₁, R₂, and R₃ areeach a hydrogen atom in the chemical formula 2 or 3, respectively.

The compound represented by the chemical formula 1 may easily besynthesized by a common synthesis method. For example, a synthesismethod as shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C may be used. It is noted that reactionconditions, reagents, and solvents shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C are merelyillustrative, and a person skilled in the art would otherwiseappropriately select preferred conditions, reagents, and solvents. Theaforementioned polysulfurized derivative may be produced by a knownmethod, for example, a method described in an article by Ida et al. (IdaT, Sawa et al., Reactive cysteine persulfides and S-polythiolationregulate oxidative stress and redox signaling, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.USA., 2014, 111(21), 7606-7611).

The compound according to the present invention has a GAPDH aggregationinhibitory activity, and may be used for prevention, treatment, orimprovement of various cerebral neurodegenerative diseases or conditionsthereof The cerebral neurodegenerative diseases may include, forexample, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington disease, Parkinson's disease,and cerebral infarction. The SH group of the present compound entersinto a biding pocket formed around Cys-152 at the active center of GAPDHto form an S—S bond with Cys-152 of GAPDH. This enables the presentcompound to inhibit oligomerization (aggregation) of GAPDH. Therefore,substituents R₁, R₂, and R₃ may be selected with reference to apharmacophore model, and have more than 10 carbon atoms when the presentcompound is intended for use as a pharmaceutical product. Aggregation ofGAPDH can prevent aggregation and deposition of various proteinsinvolved in cerebral neurodegenerative diseases, for example, amyloid βin the case of Alzheimer's disease. Further, GAPDH aggregates may beformed before cerebral infarction when cerebral blood flow obstructionoccurs. Therefore, development or progression of cerebral infarction canbe prevented.

The present compound may typically foe prepared in a form of apharmaceutical composition when used as a pharmaceutical product. Thepharmaceutical composition may be administered via various methods suchas transdermal, intravenous, intramuscular, and transrectaladministrations in addition to direct intraventricular administration.The pharmaceutical composition can be formulated into a dosage formpreferred for a corresponding route of administration. There is noparticular limitation for the dosage form, but it may be, for example, apowder, a granule, a tablet, a capsule, an oral liquid, an injectable, aspray, an ointment, or a plaster.

The pharmaceutical composition according to the present invention maycontain the compound according to the present invention, a carrierrequired for formulation, and an auxiliary agent other than the carrier.The carrier required for formulation may be, for example, an excipientsuch as starch, lactose, and sucrose; purified water for liquidpreparations; injectable purified water for injectable preparations; anointment base such as Vaseline and lanolin used for externalpreparations; or the like. The auxiliary agent other than the carriermay be, for example, a binder such as tragacanth gum and gelatin; alubricant such as magnesium stearate and talc; a disintegrant such aslow-substituted hydroxypropylcellulose; a coating agent such as methylcellulose and hydroxypropylcellulose; a pH adjuster; a stabilizer; anemulsifying agent; or the like.

The dosage amount of a compound may be appropriately determineddepending on the compound to be administered, the disease and conditionsof a patient, the route of administration, the age and weight of thepatient, and the like. The loading amount in a pharmaceuticalcomposition may be appropriately adjusted depending on a dosage form soas to satisfy a required dosage level. The loading amount is generallyabout 0.0001% to 50%, but not limited to this range.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described specifically withreference to Examples, but the present invention shall not be limited toExamples below.

Example 1

[Downsizing of Peptide]

A peptide as a lead compound was searched before producing a peptidemimic Various peptides were synthesized in which several amino acids atthe N and C termini were deleted from GAI-1 (SEQ ID NO: 1) having anamino acid sequence as shown in Table 1. Each of the synthesizedpeptides was subject to a first, second, and third screenings asdescribed below, and a peptide (GAI-17) having an amino acid sequence ofSCT was selected. Then, an IC₅₀ value for the GAPDH aggregationinhibitory activity was determined for the selected peptide GAI-17.Results therefrom, are shown in Table 1.

(First Screening)

As the first screening, GAPDH aggregation inhibitory activities, whichrepresents potency, were measured. According to a method described inPatent Document 1, a peptide was added to a solution in which 5 μMpurified human GAPDH was dissolved in Buffer G2 so that, theconcentration of the peptide was 50 μM, and then incubated at 37° C. for48 hours. Then the aggregation inhibitory rate of GAPDH was measuredusing the turbidity (absorbance at 405 nm) of the solution.

(Second Screening)

As the second screening, A) the viability of PC12 cells in the presenceof a peptide, which represented cytotoxicity, B) effects on the GAPDHenzymatic activity, which represented side effects, and C) effects onamyloid formation, which represented specificity, were eachinvestigated.

A) Cytotoxicity

PC12 cells cultured to 80% confluence were cultured at 37° C. for 72hours in the presence of 50 μM peptide, and the cell viability wasmeasured in accordance with the conventional method.

B) Side Effects

A 10 μM peptide was added to 0.01 μM purified human GAPDH, and theenzymatic activity of GAPDH was measured in accordance with a methoddescribed in Patent Document 1.

C) Specificity

A solution containing 25 μM amyloid β23-35 was incubated at 37° C. for 1hour, and formation of amyloid aggregates was evaluated using thefluorescence intensity from the solution in accordance with a methoddescribed in Patent Document 1.

(Third Screening)

As the third screening, cytoprotective effects were investigated, whichrepresented effectiveness. Cytoprotective effects on Aβ1-40 induced PC12cell death were investigated in accordance with a method described inPatent Document 1.

TABLE 1 2nd. Screening 1st. Screening Specificity 3rd. Screening PotencyCyrotoxicity Side effect Effect on Effectiveness Inhibitory activityCell Effect on GAPDH Aβ25-35 Cytotoprotection (%) IC₅₀ (μM) (%) (50 μMat 48 h) viability (%) Activity (%) amyloidogenesis (%) in Aβ40-treated(MEAN ± S.E.) GAI Sequence in vitro in PC12 cells in vitro in vitro PC12cells in vitro 1 SNASCTTNAL 53.2 ± 1.73 104 ± 1.37  105 ± 1.80 103 ±9.94 48.0 ± 3.85 50.0 ± 0.20 17 SCT 97.7 ± 1.48 100 ± 0.76 97.9 ± 0.72102 ± 6.39 99.4 ± 1.21 1.19 ± 0.15

Next, the protective effects of GAI-17 on amyloid β induced cell deathin the presence of GAPDH-Seeds (amyloid-like fiber of GAPDH) which maypromote amyloid formation, and the cerebroprotective effects of GAI-17were investigated according to the method described below.

(Protective Effects on Amyloid β Induced Cell Death in the Presence ofGAPDH-Seeds)

Cytoprotective effects on Aβ1-40 induced PC12 cell death wereinvestigated in the presence of GAPDH-Seeds (1%) and GAI-17 (50 μM)according to a method described in Patent Document 1. Results therefromare shown in FIG. 2 .

(Cerebroprotective Effects)

For cerebroprotective effects, the changes in cerebral infarction volumeand the improvement in neurological symptoms were studied in a strokemodel (MCAO). To a stroke model mouse, 60 nmol/mouse of a peptide wasintraventricularly administered, and the reduction in cerebralinfarction volume and the improvement in neurological symptoms after 24hours were determined. The stroke model mouse was prepared in accordancewith a method by of Andrabi et al. (Andrabi et al., Nat Med., 2011,June; 17(6): 692-9). A mouse was maintained under the state of ischemiafor 30 minutes, and then perfusion was re-started. The cerebralinfarction volume was measured 36 hours after ischemia started. Further,in accordance with the method by Andrabi et al. (supra), a neurologicalscore was determined for neurological symptoms of the mouse to evaluatethe improvement in neurological symptoms.

Aggregation of GAPDH is generally accepted to be involved in not onlyaggregation of β amyloid but also aggregation of proteins involved inother cerebral neurodegenerative diseases (for example, α-synuclein inParkinson's disease and huntingtin in Huntington's disease) (Tsuchiva K.et al., Eur J Neurosci., 21, 317-26; Bae B I. et al., Proc Natl Acad SciUSA., 103, 3405-9; and others). When the relationship with aggregationof GAPDH in the context of cerebral infarction as one of the cerebralneurodegenerative diseases was studied, formation of GAPDH aggregateswas observed in the brain from about 12 hours after ischemia/re-startedperfusion, and an increase in cerebral infarction volume was observedfollowing the formation of GAPDH aggregates as shown in FIG. 3 . Incontrast, administration of the peptide was found to decrease cerebralinfarction volume and improve neurological symptoms after 24 hours (FIG.4 ). These results suggest that inhibition of GAPDH aggregation mayprevent deterioration of neurological symptoms which have been caused byblood flow obstruction such as stroke, or may improve neurologicalsymptoms which have been caused by blood flow obstruction such asstroke. In particular, administration within 6 hour after stroke islikely to lead to prevention of advanced seriousness.

Example 2

(Synthesis of Compound TN-101)

Next, the peptide GAI-17 was used as a lead compound to design acompound (TN-101) in which R₁, R₂, and R₃ in the chemical formula 1 wereeach a hydrogen atom, and the compound TN-101 was synthesized accordingto a scheme shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C.

At room temperature, 3 g of 9-fluorenyl carbomethoxy-S-trityl-L-cysteine(Fmoc-Cys(Trt)-OH) and 0.58 g of (R)-(−)-1-amino-2-propanol were allowedto react in 35 ml of dimethylformamide containing 0.8 g of acetic acidHOAt and 1.28 g of water-soluble carbodiimide·HCl for 1 hour to obtain3.5 g of a compound 1. Next, 1 g of the compound 1 was dissolved in 35ml of dichloromethane containing 20% piperidine, and allowed to react atroom temperature for 30 minutes. Subsequently, the reaction product wasallowed to adsorb on a NH silica gel column, and then eluted with aneluent (a mixture of equal volume of ethyl acetate andchloroform:methanol=9:1) to obtain 0.69 g of a compound 2. The compound2 in an amount of 0.69 g and 2-(3-bromopropoxy)tetrahydro-2H-pyran in anamount of 4.29 g were allowed to react in 40 ml of dry acetonitrilecontaining 2.34 mL of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide·HClto obtain 1.94 g of a compound 3. The compound 3 in an amount of 1.94 gwas allowed to react in 10 ml of a mixture of trifluoroaceticacid/triisopropyl silane/water/dodecanethiol at room temperature for 30minutes to obtain 0.41 g of a crude compound C (crude TN-101). The crudecompound C in an amount of 82 mg was allowed to adsorb on an ODS column,and then eluted with an eluent (1% aqueous acetonitrile containing 0.1%trifluoroacetic acid) to obtain 34 mg of a trifluoroacetate of thepurified compound C (TN-101). Electrospray ionization mass spectrometryand NMR revealed that this compound had a molecular weight of 237.1(salt free).

As shown in FIG. 5 , simulations showed that the compound TN-101 enteredinto a hydrophobic binding pocket formed around Cys-152 as theaggregation active center of GAPDH, and the thiol group of Cys-152 onGAPDH was protected when accessed by the SH group of TN-101, resultingin blocked oligomerization of GAPDH.

(Effectiveness of TN-101)

The compound TN-101 was subjected to the first and second screenings ina similar way as in Example 1. Results indicated that TN-101 showed anaggregation inhibitory activity superior to that of the lead compound(the GAI-17 peptide) in the first screening (FIG. 6 ), and also showedcytotoxicity and an uninhibited GAPDH enzymatic activity comparable withor smaller than those of the lead compound in the second screening (FIG.7 ). Further, the IC₅₀ value (0.90±0.11 μM) for the GAPDH aggregationinhibitory activity was also significantly smaller than that of the leadcompound (FIG. 8 ), suggesting that TN-101 was a suitable GAPDHaggregation inhibitor.

Example 3

(Synthesis of Polysulfurized Derivative)

A thiol substance having an in vivo antioxidative activity such asglutathione (GSH) may form an S—S bond (disulfide bond) to become adimer (GS-SG) under oxidative stress environments such as stroke.Therefore, the antioxidative activity may be lost, resulting indecreased in vivo stability. Meanwhile, a thiol substance may readily bepolysulfurized with hydrogen sulfide produced in vivo, and apolysulfurized derivative appears to have an increased antioxidativeactivity and in vivo stability as compared with a monomer and a dimer(the article by Ida et al.). The article states that amongpolysulfurized derivatives (GS-(S)n-SG: n≥1) of glutathione, forexample, GS-SS-GS shows the height in vivo stability and antioxidativeactivity. Accordingly, for TN-101 as a thiol compound (referred to as“TNSH”), a polysulfurized derivative (TNS-(S)n-STN: n is an integer of 1or more) was synthesized for the purpose of increasing the in vivostability and activity.

A polysulfurized derivative of the compound 1 was synthesized inaccordance with a method described in the article by Ida et al. AqueousTH-101 (20 mM) and 20 mM sodium hydrogensulfide (NaHS) were mixed in thepresence of a 20 mM iodo (I₂) solution dissolved in a 20 μM Tris-HClbuffer solution (pH 7.4), and allowed to react at room temperature for15 minutes. The reaction liquid was developed by reverse phase liquidchromatography to fractionate TNS-(S) n-STK (the chemical formula 3). Itis noted that a simple dimer (TNS-STN) with n=0 is also generated atthis stage, and a mixture of compounds wherein n is an integer including0 is obtained. The fractionated mixture was further developed by reversephase liquid chromatography to obtain TNS-S-STN (the chemical formula4).

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The compound according to the present invention can be used as atherapeutic or preventive agent for cerebral amyloidosis associated withamyloid aggregation such as Alzheimer's disease and cerebralneurodegenerative diseases associated with cerebral ischemia.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A compound represented by any of thechemical formula 1 wherein R₁, R₂, and R₃ are each independently ahydrogen atom, a halogen atom, or an aliphatic hydrocarbon group havinga carbon number of from 1 to 10, the chemical formula 2 wherein R₁, R₂,and R₃ are each independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, or analiphatic hydrocarbon group having a carbon number of from 1 to 10, andn is an integer of 1 or more, or the chemical formula 3 wherein R₁, R₂,and R₃ are each independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, or analiphatic hydrocarbon group having a carbon number of from 1 to 10, andn is an integer of 1 or more, and or a pharmaceutically acceptable saltthereof,


2. A GAPDH aggregation inhibitor including as an active ingredient oneor more compounds selected from the group consisting of a compoundrepresented by any of the chemical formula 1 wherein R₁, R₂, and R₃ areeach independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an aliphatichydrocarbon group having a carbon number of from 1 to 10, the chemicalformula 2 wherein R₁, R₂, and R₃ are each independently a hydrogen atom,a halogen atom, or an aliphatic hydrocarbon group having a carbon numberof from 1 to 10, and n is an integer of 1 or more, or the chemicalformula 3 wherein R₁, R₂, and R₃ are each independently a hydrogen atom,a halogen atom, or an aliphatic hydrocarbon group having a carbon numberof from 1 to 10, and n is an integer of 1 or more, and apharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof,


3. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound according toclaim 1.